Holder Calls Trump 'Orange Man,' Sessions Is 'Racially Insensitive'

Former Attorney General Eric Holder let loose on members of the Trump administration in a new interview.

Holder spoke with Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere for the "Off Message" podcast and referred to President Donald Trump as the "orange man" and said Attorney General Jeff Sessions is "racially insensitive."

"You don't do politics when you're attorney general, but as a private citizen and as a defender of the Obama legacy, I'm free to say what I want and to say it in the way that I'd like to," Holder said.

"I probably would not have done that while I was attorney general. I didn't have an orange man who I was serving under, but I mean, I would not have said that about a former president, for instance, while I was attorney general. But now I'm just a citizen and I've got the full range of my voice back."

Regarding Sessions, who replaced Holder's successor Loretta Lynch at the top of the Department of Justice's flow chart, Holder was equally unfiltered.

"I can't think of many things where I could say I agree with him," he said. "I think he has done some things both within his career and as attorney general that I think have been racially insensitive, and there are times where I think he's racially unaware," Holder said.

Holder noted that Sessions did not reach out to him before he took office in January, nor has he spoken to him since then.

Holder said America today "feels like the same country that is in a different space. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 was all about hope and change. Those sound like campaign slogans, but really, that was the feeling about that election.

"Donald Trump's election was more about division and fear. … The president sets a moral tone, and I think in that regard, President Trump has not done the job we expect of our leaders."

Holder also was asked what would happen if Trump fired Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who is now working as the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation.

"That, for me, would be simply unacceptable," he said. "That would be something that I think would raise the possibility of impeachment."